William Hague Lends Muscle To Yorkshire And Humber Muscle Group, UK

Main Category: Muscular Dystrophy / ALS
Article Date: 21 Feb 2010 - 1:00 PDT

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A group of campaigning muscle disease patients from Yorkshire and Humber are proud to announce the Rt. Hon. William Hague MP as their new patron.

The Yorkshire and Humber Muscle Group asked Mr Hague, as MP for Richmond and a Rotherham-born local lad, to be patron of their organisation and are pleased that he has accepted this post.

Muscular dystrophy patients and their families living in Yorkshire and Humber make up the regional campaigning group for better local muscle disease health services. It also gives them an opportunity to support and advise each other on living with these often devastating conditions.

William Hague was an obvious choice as patron because aside from his local connections, he was also Minister of State for Social Security and Disabled People from 1994 to 1995. Mr Hague counts as his proudest political achievement designing and passing the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

William Hague said:

I am pleased to confirm that I have accepted the post of patron for the Yorkshire and Humber Muscle Group.

This group of campaigners are doing extremely important work for muscle disease patients in the region and I am glad to be able to lend my support to their fight for better health services for these conditions.

Chair of the Muscle Group Brian Deehan, who has also recently confirmed Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland and Bradford North MP Terry Rooney as patrons, said:

William Hague was responsible for the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 and was one of the main people who pushed that through.

I'm absolutely delighted about the new patrons we've got. They are all prominent MPs from Yorkshire who can put pressure on the NHS on our behalf.

Tracey Franklin from Brough's son Jack, 13, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a life-limiting muscle wasting condition. They met William Hague at his constituency office earlier this week. Tracey said:

I don't think many people within the health service have much knowledge of neuromuscular illness. If we can build a profile of muscular dystrophy through our campaigning it will be of major benefit to everyone with the conditions.

Having someone as high-profile as William Hague on board makes people want to get involved. When I met him I told him his Disability Discrimination Act in itself had changed people's lives and he should be very proud of it.

I don't want other mums to have to go through the arguments and fights that I did to get the care Jack needs. Having that diagnosis is traumatic enough without this added pressure.

Local gentry the Earl and Countess of Swinton have also been confirmed as muscle group patrons.

The Yorkshire and Humber Muscle Group was set up in response to findings from the Walton Report, an investigation into England's health services for muscle disease patients. It showed that the average life expectancy for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Yorkshire and Humber was just 17 years and two months, compared with 30 years in the North East which had better muscle disease health services.

Brian said:

"We were so angry about the report into muscle disease care in Yorkshire and Humber - it's a great wrong that needs righting. Children are in hospices with muscular dystrophy and they shouldn't be there. Boys of 17 or 18 with Duchenne muscular dystrophy are looking at the end of their lives, when if they lived in Newcastle they would be looking forward to another 10 years at least."

Anyone interested in the work of the Yorkshire and Humber Muscle Group and the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign should go to http://www.muscular-dystrophy.org.

Source
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign

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